“We want to make synthetic meat substances using algae protein,” said Stephen Mayfield, a biology professor and algae geneticist at the University of California San Diego. “If we could do that and make stuff that actually tasted good, now you've got a game-changer for the planet. Then we could stop cutting down all the rainforests and stop overfishing.” Read Full Article »
Smart indoor garden discreetly grows plants and herbs. One doesn't necessarily need a green thumb and lush plots of land in order to cultivate quality crops.

A Canadian-based team has launched a product aimed at individuals who want to grow plants and herbs year-round without all the guesswork. The Grobo indoor gardening system features smart tech designed to simulate ideal growing conditions while providing real-time information to users. Indoor, automated, and/or smart growing systems are nothing new. One could take a trip to a local nursery and pick up ready-to-go pods that need only periodic watering and daily sunshine, not unlike the Click and Grow Smart Herb Garden. But vigilance matters – a few missed days of care can impact resulting harvests. Standing at nearly 4 ft (1.2 m) tall, the rectangular-shaped Grobo could be casually mistaken for an Ikea bookshelf – ideal for those who don't have space for a greenhouse the size of a vending machine. The estimated delivery date is April, 2017.

Source: Grobo. Modern Meadow. Potential drought resilience strategies for the Horn of Africa. The Horn of Africa (HoA), which comprises of eight countries, has an estimated combined population of 210 million people and is one of the world’s most food-insecure and vulnerable regions on the planet, with the majority of the inhabitant’s pastoralists and agro-pastoralists, living on marginalized lands.

Poverty, rapid population growth and conflicts are also common in the region. Factor in recurrent droughts which have induced high rates of crop failures, diminished potential livestock grazing lands and result in loss of lives and livelihoods, makes this region of the world one of the most challenging and difficult places to live. In 2011, the region faced the worst drought in decades that decimated crops and livestock, and left over 12 million people, mainly the pastoralist communities, in distress across the affected region. Prior to the devastating drought, a Regional Study on Sustainable Livestock Development in the HoA was commissioned by the Africa Development Bank (AfDB).

What Coke Contains — Food for Thought. The Vons grocery store two miles from my home in Los Angeles, California sells 12 cans of Coca-Cola for $6.59 — 54 cents each.

The tool chain that created this simple product is incomprehensibly complex. Each can originated in a small town of 4,000 people on the Murray River in Western Australia called Pinjarra. Pinjarra is the site of the world’s largest bauxite mine.
Turning toxic vegetable refuse into nutritious animal feed. A new technology, known as transport engineering, aims to remove unwanted substances from edible portions of plants.

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons) A Danish research team has developed a method that can prevent unwanted toxins in oilseed rape from reaching the edible parts of the plant. This means that the rapeseed cake – the refuse remaining after the oil has been expressed from the rapeseed – may in the future be used in feed for pigs and poultry on a completely different scale. “We have developed a new technology that we call transport engineering,” says Professor Barbara Halkier, Head of Center of Excellence for Dynamic Molecular Interactions (DynaMo) at Copenhagen University’s Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences.

“It can be used to remove unwanted substances from edible portions of plants. Rapeseed plants fill their seed with toxic defence compounds The researcher explains that all plants produce toxins to defend themselves against disease attacks and herbivores.
Modern wheat a "perfect, chronic poison," doctor says. (CBS News) Modern wheat is a "perfect, chronic poison," according to Dr.

William Davis, a cardiologist who has published a book all about the world's most popular grain. Davis said that the wheat we eat these days isn't the wheat your grandma had: "It's an 18-inch tall plant created by genetic research in the '60s and '70s," he said on "CBS This Morning.
" "This thing has many new features nobody told you about, such as there's a new protein in this thing called gliadin. It's not gluten. I'm not addressing people with gluten sensitivities and celiac disease. Asked if the farming industry could change back to the grain it formerly produced, Davis said it could, but it would not be economically feasible because it yields less per acre. "If three people lost eight pounds, big deal," he said.